Refugee Action Coalition: PNG RENEGES ON REFUGEE DEAL

The seven West Papuan asylum seekers secretly returned from Boigu Island to Port Moresby in late September are now under guard at the hotel where they had been taken on their return.

The seven asylum seekers were placed under guard after a meeting with PNG government officials late yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

At that meeting, Immigration officials told them they will be taken to the isolated West Papuan camp, Kiunga, in Western Province close to the PNG border with Indonesia. There was no discussion of PNG processing their refugee claims.

The officials told them that UNHCR could process their claims in the camp, but the UNHCR does not have a presence at the camp, or indeed, in PNG.